God Jul/Merry Christmas/Zalig kerstfeest

Our first Christmas in Norway is very nice and relaxed. We have a small christmas tree (a living one, strange Dutch people that we are!), with homemade cookies in it! Enjoyed a great meal yesterday, went skiing this afternoon and will have another good meal tonight.
Hope you all have a great Christmas too!

Love,

Claartje & Douglas



Mørketid/julebord/santa lucia

Christmas started here at the first sunday of Advent with lighting the lights in the tree in the city center and gløgg (kind of gluhwein) for everyone in the office. At the 4th of december we had our Julebord (christmasdinner) from Statoil. It was great fun, with nice traditional norwegian christmasfood, a pepperkake hus, a lot of dancing and a small afterparty in town.



Afterparty in the Metzo!



To get even more in the Christmas mood Claartje joined the 'Juledekorasjonskurs' of Statoil and made a nice christmas decoration. I only made one of these three actually, but it was fun!

Our sledges have arrived and fit into our car perfectly. We have found a nice long path going down, where we can sledge really fast! We just have to look out for all the cross-country skiers (langlaufers) on the same path...

The mørketid has started a couple of weeks ago, so the sun does not show above the horizon At the start there as not much difference at all, but by now it is really dark most time of the day.There is however a very special light for a long time each day, where dawn and dusk flow into each other. The snow does help to make it all more light in general. This picture is taken at about 1 in the afternoon.



At the 13th of December Santa Lucia (girl with the crown of candles) is celebrated here in Norway. Children from the local kindergarten came to the office to perform a song for us...very cute!


Love Claartje & Douglas

Last of the sun.

       

At the end of November it was cold but still we decided to go outside and enjoy the snow and the last of the sun. We have walked up the Gansås toppen on saturday and the Samaåsen on sunday, enjoying the views of the sun as it just is touching above the southern horizon.

Northern Lights!

Last Sunday, when Douglas was in the Netherlands, there were very nice Northern lights in the skies above Harstad. I made a lot of pictures, here is a selection of the ones where the camera has not been moved too much...Douglas brought me back a tripod, so from now on all pictures should be ok!


It is really nice to look at the beautiful lights in the skies. The only disadvantage is that it is very cold when they appear (clear skies = cold night!).

Love,

Claartje

SNOW!



Snow and the pink 'evening'-light



The quickstep..

 
The last couple of weeks it has snowed on and off, creating beautiful views and slippery roads.

Last weekend we went up a mountain in the area. At sea level there was no snow, on the top it was at some places piled up to a meter thick! We went up with Martijn and Mike, two guys working for Schlumberger and had a very good time!
The same day we had the annual 'Viltfest' at the Statoil office and it was great! We tasted different kinds of meat, like reindeer, moose and whale. All accompanied by nice wines and some aquavit.

As said, it is snowing on and off, and we enjoy ourselves with trowing snowballs, dancing in the fresh snow and walking in the fresh air. Harstad in wintertime is just as great as in summertime!

Love,
Claartje & Douglas

A car, and not too soon!

We bought a car last Friday, and not a minute too soon. Since this weekend the temperature has dropped to around the freezing point and it is raining and snowing on and off. Our winter tiers (with studs) are being used well and we enjoy driving around and especially the freedom it gives us to go anywhere we want, anytime we want to!

The snow on the mountains around us gives us the feeling we are living in a postcard.

Here are some nice pictures to illustrate a sunrise, snow, the moon, a walk in the wind and our car!

Love


Douglas & Claartje

The first snow end of september

Stormy Elgsnes

Hinnstein,

The Hinnstein is a 560 meter peak near Harstad just behind the Statoil office. With a glorious sunny autumn Saturday Douglas cycled to the base of the Hinnstein and climbed to the top. The leaves on the trees have turned even more yellow and orange and some trees started to shed their leaves. The views of city and the surrounding Islands where fantastic. It was even possible to see our apartment building. Douglas also caught two fish in front of the house on Friday.

Love

Claartje & Douglas

 

 

Claartje in Stavanger

Hei!

last week I was on a course in Stavanger, to learn to work with a modelling programm.

The course was very interesting, I met some frieds for dinner (thanks for showing me Stavanger Thom and Maria) and I have even contributed to an art project for which a Brazilian artist made somewhere around 10.000 small ice sculptures which needed to be put on some stairs in the centre (I placed one as well). The result was quite nice actually, but of course it melted away in little time.

Love,

Claartje

Fall has come

The trees have turned yellow and orange making the views here even more spectacular. Douglas has caught his first Norwegian fish just in front of the house. We have been cycling around seeing different parts of the island, broadening our horizons. Days are getting shorter but we have seen our first Northen lights and it is a magnificent view!

Love,

Douglas & Claartje

Melkøya,Snøhvit in Hammerfest

Douglas flew in two flights to Hammerfest to visit the LNG plant located on Melkøya. Melkøya is a island were the gas comes to shore of the project that I am working on called Snøhvit project. A tunnel underneath the fjord connects Melkøya to Hammerfest. I stayed two nights in Hammerfest and got to see the town and the LNG plant. In the morning I saw reindeer walking in the streets so I had reindeer for dinner that night. I also saw a seal playing with a fish in the harbor but as seal is no longer on the menu I had fish for lunch.

Douglas

Bikes and horses

Last week, we bought bikes! Which means we can now explore new parts of Harstad, such as the road to the horse racing track. The race itself was not too exciting, but the cycling to get there (uphill) and especially the way back (down!) was great.

Love,

Douglas & Claartje

At work and at home

Nice view during one of our walks in the past weeks

After two weeks at work, we are getting used to the workplace, times and atmosphere at Statoil. And from what we have seen, we like it a lot!

The office (the building in the back) as seen from the main road

We are finally finished with giving everything a place in our house. Here are some pictures to illustrate what our house looks like now.

As you can imagine, we like it a lot!



Love Douglas & Claartje